Abstract

Thin-film transistors of hydrogenated amorphous silicon were fabricated on foils of stainless steel with thickness ranging down to 3 μm, which is less than three times the thickness of the deposited films.Transistors made on foils from 3 to 200 μm thick exhibit comparable electrical performance. Two factors account for the feasibility of such thin device/substrate structures. One is that the built-in stress and the differential thermal contraction stress nearly cancel each other in structures. The other is that on very thin foils the transistor structure offloads part of its strain to the steel foil.